Bizarre Transfer Window

I think this was always going to happen this window. Almost every club in this division has been living well beyond their means for years. FFP is now making that far harder to do. What will be interesting is to see what it has done to average earnings in the Championship within 2 or 3 seasons. 

I worry about it becoming a "them and us" situation with 14 or 15 clubs cemented in the top division. Another 7 or 8 clubs with wealthy owners, a good accountant (and possibly parachute payments) that are able to work the system and float about between the top of the Championship and bottom of the Prem. Then everyone else underneath, with little or no hope of making it to the promised land!

What FFP is actually doing is widening the gap between the wealthiest and everyone scrapping in the floors below. This isn't just my opinion, it was a fiscal consequence predicted by the football research unit and pretty much anyone with a basic understanding of economics.

Plus UEFA’s decisions to apply less harsh punishments to big clubs fail to exude fairness – especially when the cases involving PSG and Manchester City are taken into account.

From a sporting perspective, it is hard to avoid the feeling that the FFP Regulations may have helped to maintain a sporting cartel of the elite European clubs who trade the major honours between them.

There is also massive inconsistency in the way FFP sanctions have been handled in different territories here and abroad. Even within a single territory the disparities have been striking.

Plus there are many ways of circumventing it as we continue to see.  We just didn't play smart enough. It was that simple.  The elephant in the room since our little escapade has been the massive increase in rights monies, which further perpetuates the status quo. Play it right, and you can be massively rewarded for ignoring  FFP - way beyond anything we imagined back in Uncle's pomp - which further encourages the whole cycle.

FFP just opens another tranch of bureaucracy. The horse had well and truly bolted by the time it was instituted. If you want economic parity, you have to tackle the reward system first.

Interestingly, Brexit may change the way UK clubs fight FFP sanctions, since EU law maintains that FFP sanctions are compatible with its own codes. They may however not be compatible with British justice (depending on how and if Brexit is implimented). But that's another story.